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I recently read the first 60 issues (they're up around 74 I think now) and its got a really good story that focuses more on the drama with the zom-pocalypse and undead as a backdrop, kinda like Romero did with Dawn of the Dead. If this is even close to AMC's other series in terms of quality (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, etc) then it should be fantastic.

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I'm actually rereading the comics at the moment and I think that their intent with the 6 episode first season is to carry through the first six issues. Frank Darabont had said in an interview he was interested in hitting all the major beats of the comic but also taking the time that the format of TV allowed to explore some of the situations and relationships more deeply.

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They have a teaser already? They only just started principle filming a couple weeks ago for season two (idiots). Who frakking waits that long to produce a second season?

The second season is to premiere this October a full year after the original season started. This normally isn't an issue with 'normal' television because of larger seasons of 20ish episodes and syndication, but when you only ran 6 episodes and reruns of six episodes can only take you so far, one begins to wonder what the bloody hell they were thinking taking so long to start.

America's audience is so ADD anymore, I wonder, (and hope I'm wrong) if they will lose viewers because of this outrageous gap.

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AMC hasn't had any problem keeping an audience for Mad Men, or Breaking Bad and those series both usually have 9-ish months between seasons. I think that audiences are more tolerant of a wait if the end result is worth it, that is to say that there will be consecutive run of episodes and the quality of said episodes will be high.

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Battlestar Galactica had some pretty screwed up gaps in production, but they made it to the end of the story eventually. I do wonder about loss of audience however, I know that there were episodes that I missed along the way because of it.

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Wow: Just a few days after acclaimed director Frank Darabont took the Comic-Con stage to promote season two of AMC’s The Walking Dead comes this news that he’s stepping down as the series’ showrunner.

Sources say Deadline’s report is true that Darabont will no longer serve as the chief writer-producer on the series. Without saying whose decision it was, the decision is attributed to Darabont never quite having gotten the hang of switching from films (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) to a TV show.

At Comic-Con, Darabont certainly seemed excited about continuing on the hit series and working with the second season writing staff. “We also have writers that are really fans of [the show],” Darabont said. “The first six episodes, nobody knew what the hell they were dealing with, except me.”

Darabont’s been involved with the project for a long time, too — he pitched it to NBC about six years ago. He could stay on the series in some kind of capacity, though such positions are sometimes merely honorary when a big talent steps down as showrunner. Glen Mazzara (The Shield) is Darabont’s No. 2 on the show, though it’s not yet clear what sort of succession plan is being laid out. Either way, the series is expected to continue shooting as planned and still debut Oct. 16.

The news is sure to disappoint fans of the series (and, okay, us too), given how involved Darabont was with the terrific first season of the show.

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That really sucks. Frank Darabont was a big reason that I was interested in the show. The first season was far from perfect and I hope that things improve as they go along. This isn't a good sign, at least as for me, but it doesn't mean that the show can't be good. If Darabont had problems working in TV perhaps it could even be a good thing. I don't think we'll really know any difference until the 3rd season.

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I agree about us probably not knowing until the third season. Even stepping down now, his mark will be on this season...even if they haven't finished filming. Most of the scripts are at least in rough draft form, if not done.

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I read that AMC is cutting the budget for all of their shows. Breaking Bad is looking for a new network because of this. Mad Men missed last season because of budget issues. AFAIK The Walking Dead is the only major show that they own the rights to, and they are cutting it's budget by $250k. I am guessing that had a lot to do with Darabont leaving the show.

"Creatively I have no complaints thus far," Darabont says. "But I believe if they do move ahead with what they’re talking about, it will affect the show creatively ... in a negative way. Which just strikes me as odd. If you have an asset, why would you punish it?"

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AFAIK Breaking Bad's next season (after this one ends that is) will be its last. The creator has said that he had given Walt a 4 year death sentence at the beginning and that would not be forgotten.

As for peeling budgets back, I would wager that this is more a sign that the economy is tough and there simply isn't enough money for all of their shows to get top tier funding. Only 2 years ago AMC only had 2 shows, now it has 4 (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, The Killing), with still others in the wings (shows that haven't aired yet or aired and were not renewed like Rubicon).

They aren't HBO, they are only basic cable and so their budgets are likely to be be that much smaller by comparison.

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The issue of them not being HBO is a big one. Since HBO owns their shows they make all of the profit from the DVD/Blu-Ray sales, as well as any merchandise. Since most of AMC's shows are not owned by the them they only make money from Ad revenue.

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Actually they are cutting the budget by $250,000 PER EPISODE. A quarter mill. off the season as a whole probably wouldn't have been a big deal, but a quarter mill. off each episode is a much bigger deal.

According to this story we might have Mad Men to blame for being too damn expensive for AMC to fund it and all its other shows fully. Sony Television has even started to shop Breaking Bad around to other networks because of this.

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I read that Mad Men's budget is approximately 10 million for the 13 episode season. That equates to just over $750,000 an episode. If The Walking Dead's budget is similar then that is a third of the budget taken away.

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From all the different articles I've read looking for the budget (and not finding it) the excuse seems to be largely that the first season of WD was given a higher budget because it was viewed as a 6 hour pilot and not a season.

Therefore the 'normal' budget would be less when compared to a pilot.

The underlying and probably more realistic reason is because in the hopes to keep Mad Men and keep Matthew Weiner, they have shelled out millions.

The deal signed with Matthew Weiner to keep him on for the next two seasons is reported at between 25-30 million. AMC also upped the initial offer of 6-8 episodes back up to 13 in fear of losing the series.

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The season two premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead will be a 90 minute long episode, and the season itself will be, like many of the zombies in it, chopped right in half. Part two of season two will air in February.

The show premieres on October 16th, and it will run six episodes, and then it’ll go on hiatus and return on February 12th. That second half of the season will be seven episodes. Here’s hoping that this division makes some sense and that we’re left with an interesting cliffhanger to keep our zombie appetites whetted.